Vanilla beans are ridiculously expensive but the flavor they give any baked good, or dessert in general, is unbelievable. It's worth splurging on them every once in a while to get that wonderfully speckled vanilla ice cream or vanilla bean cake.

Directions:

Use your knife to gently cut through one side of the pod from top to bottom

Open up the pod and use the back of the knife to scrape out the seeds

Scrape the pod a few times turning the bean to access different nooks and crannies

Add the seeds to your baked good

If you like, you can use the leftover pod to flavor milk or sugar . . . or something else